Refugees Settling In The United States

In this Sept. 13, 2015 photo taken with slow shutter speed migrants walk towards a checkpoint along the railway tracks connecting Horgos and Szeged near Roszke, in the vicinity of the border between Hungary and Serbia.

Balazs Mohai / MTI / AP

President Barack Obama announced last week that the United Sates is on track to accept 1,500 Syrian refugees by the end of this month. Obama also says he’s increasing the number of Syrian refugees the U.S. will accept next year from 8,000 to 10,000. But the International Rescue Committee (IRC) says the US has an obligation to do more to help the refugee crisis and is calling on the U.S. to accept 100,000 displaced Syrians in 2016. To put those numbers in context, Germany, which has seen more migrants arrive than any other European country, has accepted 800,000 Syrian refugees this year alone.

Joining us to talk about the United States’ moral and legal obligation to grant asylum to Syrians seeking refuge from war is Karen Ferguson, the Executive Director of the Northern California chapter of the IRC.